Chapter 1,328 Succession by Virtuous Sons

After gaining a general understanding of the affairs of the Imperial Intelligence and the Greco family, Lin asked about another thing that he was very concerned about - the empress, Saint Alegria.

According to the steward of the Chamber of Commerce, the empress succeeded to the throne in 726 Aram. Exactly ten years ago. And the reason why she wears that crown is not so much that she is very good, but rather that other people with the right to inherit are seeking death, or are making great strides towards committing suicide, so they were abandoned.

The late empress died of a sudden illness and did not specify a candidate for the heir apparent during her lifetime. In a situation like this, the person who is qualified to inherit will naturally have a luxurious version of the dance of demons!

But it should be noted first that in most areas of the Lost World, as well as most Homo sapiens races, including humans, the rules of inheritance of power are adopted in order to maintain social stability to the greatest extent, using the 'primogeniture system'.

Simply put, regardless of whether you are stupid or stupid, as long as you don't make a big mistake, being born first wins everything. There is nothing to discuss. At most, there is a distinction between direct concubine and concubine. The advantage of this is that people who want to take sides can easily judge who to support, and are less likely to make investment mistakes. Unless the original owner has no biological children, or these people have made an unforgivable mistake, things will become complicated.

But the Karlsruhe Empire is different from other places. The inheritance here is the 'virtuous son's inheritance system'. Simply put, as long as there are basic inheritance qualifications, regardless of whether he is born first or later, the best person will take the throne. And this inheritance qualification is not limited to biological children, including brothers and sisters, collateral descendants, and even in-laws.

The reason why the inheritance rules of the Karlsruhe Empire are so special is because the empire's nobility is also produced in a very special way. As long as they can attract people and enclose land to a certain level, the empire will grant the corresponding noble title.

In the era before the empire became an empire, the eldest son still inherited first. However, there have been too many situations where non-eldest children and nephews have achieved better development after the family separation, and eventually returned to the original family. The entire society has gradually evolved into a system in which the best children inherit everything. Anyway, if you don’t give it to him, someone with the ability will still grab it.

The inheritance of the patriarchal clan evolved in this way, and the empire's nobles were generated in that way. Ultimately, it was due to the topographical characteristics of the Karlsruhe Empire, which was mountainous and watery. It may be easier to understand in another way, that is, 'easy to defend but hard to attack'.

For terrain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, instead of risking lives to conquer it, it is better to rely on political skills to merge. Therefore, "appropriate" display of strength and then everyone sitting down to talk became the political game of the Karlsruhe Empire.

If you want to stand out and become a leader, you must naturally follow the consensus rules of the entire society and try your best to get the majority of people to agree with you and then support you. Only then will the rules of inheritance change from primogeniture, which emphasizes social stability, to virtuous son inheritance, which pursues maximization of interests.

It is true that the virtuous son inheritance system has its flaws, that is, it is easy to focus on internal fighting; and in the process of internal fighting, too much strength may be lost, which will lead to the decline of the family or the nobility, or make people have troubles. Take advantage of the opportunity.

so what? If the person occupying the latrine does not fall down, how can others have the chance to squat down?

Even if there are vested interests who want to guard their own one-third of an acre of land and are unwilling to communicate with the outside world. The mountainous and watery terrain of the Karlsruhe Empire meant that the empire was able to use water transportation to facilitate the exchange of information and the smooth flow of goods. Making good use of these two can make its power stronger. But as soon as it communicates with the outside world, it means that the conservative forces and radical forces have lost for a while.

With the entire social atmosphere in a radical atmosphere, the desire of conservative forces to live a peaceful life is simply out of reach. Even if you do that, you will end up being eliminated by society and you will not be able to live in peace.

Generally speaking, such a society can easily embark on a path of self-destruction. But when external pressure becomes the direction of internal pressure release, the whole situation is completely different.

The Karlsruhe Empire has existed since its founding and has two old rivals that cannot be eliminated: Dragon Island and the Haider Empire.

Although they have maintained peaceful coexistence with Long Island, everyone knows that this is just an illusion. The Midi may not have a complete theory and concept of the food chain, but they can also understand that humans, who are regarded as one of the foods, cannot achieve true equality with the dragons, the top hunters. Occasionally special cases don't mean anything.

The reason why the Empire and Dragon Island maintain peace and rely on transactions to obtain what each other needs is because the Empire does not have the ability to destroy the other party without harm; and Dragon Island cannot completely destroy humanity and deprive itself of food, regardless of whether the other party sends food , or it doesn’t matter if you use it as your own food. As long as there is a way to break through the status quo, the two sides will definitely be at odds with each other, and the human (dragon) brain will show off the dog brain!

The situation in the two empires of Karlsruhe and Haider is even more complicated.

The five great empires of Midi basically do not border each other. There will be some small countries in the middle, or natural chasms separating them from each other. Only the Karlsruhe Empire and the Haider Empire were connected on the Oz Plain.

The Oz Plain is surrounded by mountains. Although it is not unique in the mountainous and watery terrain of the Karlsruhe Empire, it is also quite rare. The plain terrain has two meanings. First, it is an important grain-producing area. Secondly, this place is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

The presence of a big foodie like Dragon Island means that the Karlsruhe Empire cannot easily give up such a high-quality grain-producing area. Even if the terrain is easy to attack and difficult to defend, it is destined that the Karlsruhe Empire must firmly control the Oz Plain even if it costs human lives.

As the other hostile party, the Held Empire used Jietianguan, a fortress at the mountain pass, as a bridgehead to invade the Oz Plain. Behind the mountains is the territory of the Haider Empire, a large desert known as the Sea of ​​Death. In other words, the areas occupied by the Haider Empire in Jietianguan and Oz Plain can be regarded as enclaves.

It stands to reason that the difficulties in supplying and supporting an enclave across the desert would easily make rulers of Midi's level of medieval culture choose to give up. But the Haider Empire has airships, which are used to transport supplies, completely ignoring the terrain.

A well-known thing is that the ace airship corps of the Haider Empire was originally established to transport and supplement the important enclave fortress city of Tianguan. The initial supply team also gradually expanded to form an organized combat group today.

The reason why the Haider Empire strives to maintain its power is also very simple. The great desert behind Tianguan connects to the hinterland of the Haider Empire, which produces various important outputs such as food and minerals.

So from the perspective of imperial strategy, is it easier to defend a strategic point at Jie Tian Pass, or to defend the entire desert? Or is it easier to hope that the desert can become a barrier and then defend all the cities in its hinterland?

Under the premise that the supply routes were open, the empire's generals and successive emperors all chose to defend Jietian Pass! Instead of deploying a hundred or ten times more troops in areas where the hinterland becomes the front line, hoping that they can give head-on blows to the tired troops coming out of the desert.

The former is easy to focus on defense, while the latter is easy to be broken through and then collapse across the board. Defending is more difficult than ten times or a hundred times.

Since Jietian Pass is firmly defended, there is a plain area in front of them that is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and the output is very important in any era of food, how can the Jietian Pass defenders from the Haider Empire stay in the fortress obediently? Watching your old rival farm happily?

Plowing and setting fire in the spring, harvesting in the autumn, feeding on the enemy, and reducing the supply pressure on the rear are the daily routine of the Jietian Pass defenders.

The Karlsruhe Empire has not thought of occupying Jietian Pass and pushing back the forces of the Haider Empire to the desert. In fact, the Karlsruhe Empire did accomplish this feat and laid down that fortress that was difficult to attack.

If it were other countries, once such an important level fell, it might be followed by a series of domino reactions, and no one knew how many cities supporting the city would fall.

But after Tianguan is connected to a large desert, without complete preparations, if you step into it rashly, you will just die in vain. Moreover, as many as you give away will die. So at that time, the Karlsruhe Empire's army gathered at Jietian Pass to prepare for the invasion of the Haider Empire.

Then, due to the mass gathering of the army, it became the best target for the bombing of the airship corps from the Haider Empire. The entire battle fortress city turned into a huge trap, and all the troops stationed there, together with the fortress, were burned to the ground by the airship attack. The Karlsruhe Empire was severely damaged!

Fortunately, the Haider Empire did not have the energy to pursue the victory at that time. Although the Airship Corps achieved an unprecedented victory, the disastrous defeat in the early stages of the war still weakened Haider's power and prevented the empire from achieving greater results.

In short, the Oz Plain has been in constant war since the two empires bordered. To this day, it has not stopped.

This is also the Lost Land today, with a few areas still in a state of war. It's just that there are no big wars like in the past. Compared with the past, the intensity of the war now is just a small border conflict. Of course, the daily burning of fields and harvesting is still indispensable.

After experiencing the experience of massing an army and then being attacked head-on, the Karlsruhe Empire's defense shifted to a distributed defense. Once the defensive force is dispersed, it is inevitable that some places will be defeated.

Fortunately, the Haider Empire's Jietianguan Fortress had only a small number of standing garrison troops. They captured several manors, villages and towns, but were unable to expand the results to the entire plain. At most, partially occupy and then farm!

When it comes to things like food, the more the merrier. Of course, guarding your next door neighbor from stealing food is also a daily routine.

Today, this large granary in the Oz Plain has become a military garrison for the two empires, and not many ordinary people live here. The forces on the two sides are intertwined. From time to time, they are lost here and occupied there. The teams from both sides come and go. There are no battles aimed at killing, they are all about food.

Seriously speaking, the current Oz Plains is like a training ground for the two empires, and a place where young people gain meritorious service. For the Karlsruhe Empire, the Oz Plain has become the best place to resolve disputes within families and nobles, or between families and nobles.

Rather than using negotiation or internal fighting, it is better to decide the outcome by the amount of merit gained on the battlefield. It can be said that the existence of the Oz Plain has well released the pressure that may exist within the Karlsruhe Empire. Let the empire maintain healthy development in the overall situation.

Although it is unknown how long such a balance can be maintained, at this stage, it seems to be a healthy development for the Karlsruhe Empire.